projects

What the heck is Pecha Kucha?

That’s what I asked the first time I heard about it too.

Check out this guest post from Dave Prior and find out, even if you’re scared of the sound of “Pecha Kucha”.  It’s actually kinda cool.  I’m looking forward to viewing the entries!

By Dave Prior, PMP, CST

Whenever I tell people that I am both a PMP and an Agilist, many look at me as if this had to be some deep, dark secret.

by by Anonymous9000 via Flickr

How could one study and practice a formal project management methodology and also use Agile?

The first time one of my coworkers and I went to go speak before a PMI Chapter about Agile, we were led to believe the audience may throw tomatoes. But a funny thing happened, not only was almost everyone receptive, but many people told me, “yeah, we’ve been using some of this for years!”.

Indeed, I have been surprised with the number of PMI members who have run Agile projects – perhaps not in name – under the radar of some large organization. This was very similar to some of may earliest experiences using Agile project  anagement.

by Anonymous9000 via Flickr

I recall when working with a large financial firm, we were told we have a very strict process if we were doing projects of over 400 hours. But if we were below that threshold, there was a much lighter process. You wouldn’t believe how many “396 hour” projects that team executed.

Working with the PMI Agile Community of Practice (CoP) has been a validating experience.  So many project managers are committed to the profession of project management and interested in using Agile practices to improve their craft. In fact, over the past year we within the virtual community have been thoroughly impressed with the number of people using Agile practices in spite of circumstances.

It is with that in mind that we would like to let you know you are not alone, and we want to hear from you. The Agile CoP is hosting an online video contest, “Confessions of an Agile Project Manager”.

Submit your own video in a Pecha Kucha format telling us your story.   Perhaps it was a guerrilla project conducted quietly so as to deliver value without attracting too much attention, or maybe it was an organizational  transformation. Whatever your experience, we want to hear from you, the community, about your experiences using Agile.

by Anonymous9000 via Flickr

We will be asking the community to provide their stories and evaluate those that they like most. Most importantly, we will have cash prizes for the three best submissions!
Submissions can be made to the PMIAgile YouTube group.

Rules
Dates:
- March 5th: Contest officially begins
- May 10th: Last day to submit videos
- May 17th: Last day to vote on videos
Prizes
- 1st Place: $1000
- 2nd Place: $750
- 3rd Place: $500

Participation
Anyone is eligible to submit and vote on videos

Video Format
Submitted videos should be in formatted as pecha kucha presentations. This is a power point (or similar presentation capability) showing 20 slides that auto-advance every 20 seconds, for a video that is 6:40 in length. Videos that deviate from this format significantly, while impressing us with their creativity, will not be considered for the competition.

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Do you praise your teams enough?

by Erika Flora November 25, 2009 Leadership

Guest post by Erika Flora Years ago, I heard this great quote that has really stuck with me and become somewhat of a mantra. It is as follows: There is no limit to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit. General of the Army George C. Marshall What a [...]

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Avoid the Same Old Mistakes by Focusing on Lessons Learned

by Duncan Haughey October 28, 2008 Lessons Learned

It’s said there are no new project management sins, just old ones repeated. It’s also said that we don’t learn the lessons from past projects and this must be true, otherwise why would we keep making the same old mistakes?

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Point and Shoot Project Management

by Adam.Clark October 19, 2008 Tools

Project management as a whole has paralleled somewhat the changes we have witnessed in photography. Project management also has been a skill for the few, with the barrier to entry being quite high. However, the barriers are being reduced and the chance for abandoning “point and shoot” project management is here!

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HBR Shares How to Move Your Stalled Projects Forward

by Hal September 26, 2008 Misc

Projects are naturally networks of commitments. Learn how to bring reliability to your projects by paying attention to promising conversations.

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Bringing Support Activity into Portfolio Management

by Josh July 25, 2008 Scope

In an article at Projects@Work, Tom Mochal discusses how enhancement work not directly related to a project should be added to the managed portfolio…

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